The Nameless Story
by Borrowed Twenties
Summary: A story of unknowns, a failing relationship, the likelihood of an unhappy ending and the fight to make it alright again. In a life where best friends hide their feelings and girlfriends try harder than you know, what if someone found out who you are?
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **I've decided to re-write what little I have of this story, simply because I wasn't much pleased with the outcome of what I wrote earlier, and that's why I stopped. For now, since what with the little time I have now to write, I've decided to try again, though hopefully it'll be better this round. I think I'm going to edit the 2nd chapter as well, when I have the time.

With thanks to **Deserted Mirage** who allowed me to play with elements similar to her story (:

**Disclaimer**: I don't claim to own Batman Beyond, but it would be lovely if I could.

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**Prologue**

Night had fallen and darkness cloaked the room, save for the glowing screen that set off light in an almost eerie fashion. She sat behind the laptop, fingers hovering hesitantly over the keyboard, as if awaiting some sort of instruction. It was perfect - well, nearly. Something was missing, and she could tell. She glanced to and fro from the original suit, the blurry picture that made up the dark knight himself.

She scrambled for the lamp that lay right beside her on the table, hurriedly flicking on the light. A quick glance at the clock told her what she needed to know, and a barely perceptible yawn escaped her for a second as she winced. Putting her fatigue aside, she picked up the sheaf of papers. The scrap, raw sketches greeted her tired eyes, and she shuffled through them.

"What am I missing?"

She suddenly snapped her fingers, delighted. Of course! How could she have forgotten the ears? They were a significant part of the costume, and it would have been utterly stupid to leave out such a detail like that.

But there was one more thing that needed adding.

Her eyes once again fell upon that same picture. The blazing red emblem. The Bat emblem that stood out from the black, making a statement.

What colour should she use? Red would be unoriginal, because he was already using it. Green would be just plain weird, and purple wouldn't half stand out in the darkness as... Her gaze setted on her white mug and she smiled widely.

White.

Her fingers flew over to the mouse, clicking here and there to make the suit complete. Now, a white emblem adorned the costume, giving it just the right feel of things. It was even her favourite colour - both of theirs.

A white bat.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"You know, I heard there's a new Batgirl in town."

Max blinked, her eyes wandering over to Blade. Blade, however, looked from her nails for a second, then brought her gaze back down to them. This wasn't Chelsea's type of gossip, and, judging from Blade's reaction, it wasn't _her_ type of gossip as well.

"A Batgirl?" Blade murmured, uninterested.

"Yeah, a Batgirl." Chelsea paused. It seemed she had noticed the lack of interest in Blade's bored and monotonous tone.

Max's attention was piqued, though. However, she decided to remain silent and just listen, like she always did. Although she did occasionally hang out with the two of them, she wasn't nearly half as close to them as Dana was. Therefore, she was always comfortable to let them babble about the latest fashions and the like.

Today, Chelsea didn't spare her.

"Max? You heard of the new Batgirl?"

Seeing that she had been asked a question, Max shrugged. "Well, no. What _did_ you hear?" _There, an opportunity to find out. If Terry didn't tell me about it, I'm going to skin him alive for keeping me in the dark, _she thought.

Chelsea grinned. "_I_ heard that a Batgirl was sighted last night, at a robbery."

Max narrowed her eyes, a look of thought on her features. "A robbery? She was robbing things?" According to Max, playing dumb was sometimes neccesary.

"No, she was trying to stop them. Isn't it schway? Now we have a Batgirl to help Batman. I'm sure it'll be better on the poor guy, then." Chelsea seemed a little on the enthusiastic side.

A jaw drop and Max was staring at Chelsea. "Since when did you dabble in that of thing?" Max just had to ask. Curiosity most likely was the motivation behind it. After all, Chelsea was acting a little strange.

With a start, Max realised it hadn't just been that. Lately, Chelsea had been talking a little about the Tomorrow Knight himself. Usually her conversations were nowhere near him. Now, it seemed that slowly but surely, more topics revolving around the masked crusader emerged everyday. Maybe it was because Batman had saved her back then from the brainwashing facility she had been trapped in. Gratefulness could do a lot to a person.

Chelsea stopped. "I-I don't know." A simple shrug sufficed for her.

Max just absently nodded. Chelsea's sources were not always to the reliable side. She couldn't help thinking that this new Batgirl was just a rumour, and nothing else.

She would like to believe that Terry _would_ have told her if something as big as that had arisen. Of course, why would he? To him, it would just be a bigger struggle - she would protest and insist that she be allowed into the Batcave for a start, and then she would yell at him for not telling her earlier. Alright, so she didn't blame the guy. But then again, they were _best friends_. And he trusted her with his secret. Well, to be truthful, he hadn't wanted to. He had been left with no choice when she barged in on his alter-ego life. But still, they were _friends_!

At that moment, Terry chose the opportune time to appear. The familiar tousled black hair and ice blue eyes greeted her as he walked briskly over. Deep down inside, she knew he was rightly handsome. Not that she would tell him, anyway. Actually, he was more than handsome. He was gorgeous. That was something she would never admit. But gorgeous enough for her to fall in love with him? Maybe, maybe not.

Or so she told herself. Sometimes, when she gazed into those beautiful ice blue eyes of his, she would get lost in them. Those eyes never failed to draw her in with all that depth. Ice blue seemed like a melancholy colour. Yes, his eyes seemed cold and serious, but she couldn't understand why they portrayed a sense of warmth. Trust Terry McGinnis to have eyes that managed to show his serious side _and_ the warmth that prevailed. It didn't make sense, she knew. She kept telling herself how noble he was truly - how he saved people everyday. It was too bad Dana never got to see this side of him.

Speaking of Dana...

As he reached her side, Max blurted out, "Hey, did you get a chance to meet Dana last night?"

The seriousness instantly faded as Terry frowned. A look of fear slapped itself right onto his face like a glaring newspaper title. "Meet Dana? What do you mean?"

For a superhero who braved dangers, it was pretty ironic that he would tremble in fear of his girlfriend.

Max flashed him a smug smile. He _was_ her best friend, but it was fun to see him in a fix. Call it friend-inflicted torture, but she didn't care. "You mean the one at the park? Oh well, it's probably no big deal. You've stood her up so many times that I'm sure the number can equal to the little parts of a computer."

Terry ran a hand through his hair. "You're slamming me, right?" Seeing the raised eyebrow, he sighed in the you'll-see-my-dead-body-soon way. "Slag it, Dana's not going to be happy."

"That, is an understatement."

Terry shook his head. "Where is she, by the way?" Chelsea and Blade had left after Max stopped to talk to Terry, so it was just the two of them alone.

"At the airport. She's picking up her cousin, or something along those lines."

"By the way, I've something to ask you."

Max narrowed her eyes. "What is it?"

Terry turned to give her a hard stare. "You're not, by any chance, playing superhero again, are you?"

The confused look should have been enough evidence, but Max continued anyway. "What superhero?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

The pieces of the puzzle miraculously fit suddenly. "Batgirl?" It dawned on Max that those rumours might just be true.

Terry clenched his jaw and stared her down coldly. "Max, how many times have I told you not to play superhero? It's not a game, you know that? You could have been easily injured yesterday and -"

"Hold on, wait up. Yesterday? Hey, don't jump to conclusions. I didn't say I was Batgirl." Max glared at him. "I heard it from Chelsea."

"Chelsea?" Now it was Terry's turn to look confused.

Max had to smirk. Terry knew less about Chelsea than Max knew about her. "Yeah, Chelsea. She heard it somewhere, and then she told Blade and I."

Terry opened his mouth to ask a question, but then closed it again. Rather comical, it was.

"So, what happened yesterday?" Max casually asked. Truth was, she wanted to know just what happened - badly.

Terry hesitated. "Yesterday, I was on patrol. Not much crime, but I saw a bunch of Jokers robbing a woman. I was flying in there when I noticed another person dressed in dark clothing fighting with them. When she saw me, she turned away and ran, but not before I saw the striking white bat on her chest."

"What makes you so sure it's a she?" Max questioned.

"She seemed like a woman. You know, shape, the way she ran, or maybe her long hair?" Terry said sarcastically. He really couldn't believe that Max thought that he_, Batman, _could have gender recognition problems.

"Well, so what's the big problem? Another person to help you in the big fight, who, it turns out, isn't me." A trace of sarcasm made Terry wince.

He knew it was an understatement to say Max was jealous. No, Max was more than jealous, he presumed. Max was steaming mad. It was plausible, since she had been bugging him to let her in on the rescues more often than not.

Terry bit his lip. "Max, this is bad. I hope she won't come back again."

"Why, your insufferable ego can't take it?" There wasn't a teasing jibe to her voice, and to his surprise, it actually stung.

"Ouch, that hurt," he said jokingly. Then he turned serious again. "Max, no, it's nothing like that. When that Batgirl was fighting the Jokers, she was... She was _losing_."

Max gazed up at him, stunned. He saw a flash of guilt pass her. "Oh."

"She had gotten down a few of the Jokers, but she was outnumbered. Max, she was fighting with a _metal stick_. They were aiming dangerous blows at her, and some of them, they didn't miss." He was silent for a while.

Max fell silent as well, regret the only thing on her mind. She had been so busy wrapped up in her enviousness that she failed to notice that Terry seemed a lot more serious. And, when Terry was serious, usually things would have gone bad - or worse than usual, at least.

"She was badly beaten up by the time I got there," Terry continued solemnly. "And I'm not going to let anything like that happen again." His voice was hard, with that recognisable edge to it. For a moment, his voice had lasped into his alter-ego voice - dark, low and husky.

He was concerned, and Max knew it. With a new light, she started to notice that Terry cared more than he let himself seem.


End file.
